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surface Design
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Fabric Art
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Handmade Quilts

Looking back over the last 12 months, I'd have to say that portraiture was a big trend in modern and creative quilting . From pixel quilts made of tiny fabric squares to mixed-media quilts that enhanced fabric with paint or colored pencil, quilt artists made a lot of faces. Judging by what I've...

When creating quilted wall hangings , what do you use for inspiration? Many quilt artists take their cue from their own photos. Lisa Thorpe uses the Brushes3 app to 'sketch' her photo in preparation for making a wall hanging. Lisa Thorpe uses her photos as a jumping off point for her wall quilts...

Why did I ever take up quilting? Necessity! I was 16 years old and redecorating my impossibly small bedroom. A section of my second quilt, when I was a newbie at quilt making. Armed with a redwork pattern of kittens in a variety of poses and a few yards of calico, I set to work. Twelve embroidered blocks...

For a long time I have admired the fabric painting talents of Judy Coates Perez. Judy's stitching is also stellar, but her ability to create lifelike imagery on fabric with precision and nuances really stands out. (And, like me, she has a thing for birds.) Wholecloth painted quilt by Judy Coates...

I just returned from the International Quilt Market trade show in Houston, and my head is buzzing with ideas. There was so much to see: so many colorful booths filled with the latest fabrics, embellishments, and tools for quilt making . Stitch Editor Amber Eden (left) and I make like mummies at International...

Put this in the category of "Why didn't I think of that?" A few weeks ago, Assistant Editor Kristine Lundblad came up with a terrific way to solve a problem we have at Quilting Arts . Many of the beautiful art quilts we receive for challenges and galleries don't have hanging sleeves...

Although I consider myself a mixed-media fiber artist, my media are mostly dry: fabric, fibers, paper, and thread. I do dye fabric. But fabric painting ? That's an area of surface design I haven't explored much. When I do decide to try painting on fabric, I will certainly get some tips from experts...

A trip to Quilt Market is like time traveling to the future. And I'll tell you, the quilting future is filled with fabric. Specifically, the future is about how to quilt with your own fabric or fabric by a designer. Some friends I met at Quilt Market. Are they from the past, or the future? It seemed...

Sometimes an idea for surface design is so simple, you wonder why you never thought of it before. That's how I felt when I first saw Rose Hughes' tutorial on using crayons — the kind kids use, nothing fancy-as a resist method with fabric paint. Fabric painting with crayon resist by Rose...

Do you have hours of uninterrupted studio time? Me neither. I would say that unless you work full time in a dedicated studio, finding time to create is one of hardest things about being an artist. For most people, especially women, art has to get made in between "real jobs," kids, pets, and...

Patchwork and quilting go hand in hand. But these days patchwork quilts, once the province of traditional quilters, have become a big piece of the contemporary art quilter's repertoire, too. Today's quilters are applying their outside-the-square attitude to patchwork quilts and patchwork projects...